Guest blogger Maisa Dabus serves up Malmo & Media Evolution
Maisa Dabus, @maydbs
I say “Sweden”, you say..? Yeah, I thought so… Let me stop you right there!
Forget all about the obvious keywords popping up in your mind about this country as you knew: a lot has been happening in Sweden and you might have been missing out!
Many will have this overnight feeling, but the truth is, Sweden has been catching up, in this almost sneaky way for some time, and a city called Malmö (third biggest city in Sweden) is no longer only known as the 30-minute-ride-train to Copenhagen city.
Malmö has a bubble that is about to pop, exploding with creativity, young and fresh talent shaped as entrepreneurs, who are eager to create, deliver and change, at least a little thing or two, in an attempt to make the world better.
I’ve been spending some time at MINC – which I dare to call the hottest spot in Malmö for entrepreneurship – and to meet the cool, creative, making-it-happen kind of folks – and it’s not surprising to find so many interesting projects taking off.
I had the pleasure to hang out with the Media Evolution team this week for a couple of days. Media Evolution is in its seventh year and focuses on the future of media and discovery of new business opportunities. The Conference (formerly known as Moving Images) attracts people from film, games, web, publishing, learning, tech and music. The organizers have been preparing Media Evolution The Conference coming up on August 24 and 25th and I’m nothing but impressed with the quality of the event in every single detail: from the speakers choice to the website design. I briefly interviewed Martin Thörnkvist, in between tasks, great music and crappy coffee, about the so waited event:
Maisa: You’ve been organizing Media Evolution The Conference from scratch. Carefully selecting the best speakers, location and the details together with the Media Evolution team. What can people attending expect?
Martin Thörnkvist
Martin Thörnkvist: It’s gonna be two days with 40 speakers divided in three tracks. The speakers come from all over the world to share ideas from their technological, behavioral and entrepreneurial experiences. It’s also important to not forget that we there will be 600 participants that will discuss the future of games, TV, music, communication and other forms of media.
Maisa: This year, the conference will offer three tracks: Who’s Next?, Man & Machine and Creation. How will these topics be approached and presented to the attendees?
Martin Thörnkvist: They will all be introduced by a keynote speaker (Moeed Ahmad (Al Jazeera), Amber Case (Geoloqi) and Bill Drummond (The KLF etc)), then there will be four 45 minute sessions led by a curator that has invited two more speakers to dig deeper into the specific subject. Also, for the for the participants that feel like they already know quite much about the topics in the sessions and we will arrange round table discussions that dig even deeper into the subjects.
Maisa: As I understand, for the first time, The Conference will be completely held in English. Why this change?
Martin Thörnkvist: Two reasons. (1) we feel that there’s a lot of Swedish companies and people with great ideas who we wanted to build a platform for; and (2) we felt that our conference, after seven years, was better than many we visited in Europe or in the US and wanted to enable internationals to come join us.
Maisa: Which professionals and from which industries would you consider to make the best out of attending this conference?
Martin Thörnkvist: Most of the participants at the conference are either executives or creatives at media companies. They’re representing all kinds of media industries, everything from games and TV to web agencies and mobile.
Maisa: And last but not least, why Malmö? What is it about Malmö that is getting people curious enough to travel from all over Sweden and Europe?
Martin Thörnkvist: The city is big enough to be home of a great music and art scene and small enough to have a start up scene where you bump into people by accident who are always willing to spare an idea or share experiences. It makes people want to found media companies here. There is a lot of them for a city this size: http://www.mediaevolution.se/en/members
Ready to enjoy all the fun? It’s not too late to register, here!
See you there!
About Media Evolution The Conference – Malmö, Sweden (24-25 August)
For the seventh year we invite you to come to Malmö, Sweden, to explore the future of media and discover new business opportunities. The Conference (formerly known as Moving Images) attracts people from film, games, web, publishing, learning, tech and music.
During two days we will discuss who our future audiences are, the technology we communicate with, and how we create and consume media. These matters will be treated under the headlines: Who’s Next?, Man & Machine and Creation.
The list of speakers include Moeed Ahmad (Al Jazeera) Bill Drummond (The KLF etc), Amber Case (Geoloqi), Naveen Selvadurai (Foursquare), Yancey Strickler (Kickstarter), Björn Jeffery (Bonnier), Luke Williams (NYU / frog design) and Måns Adler (Bambuser).
The Conference puts you right in the flow of the present media evolution and points an inspiring finger into the future.
Register today -> http://mediaevolution.se/theconference/
–
Our guest blogger is a social media and blogger who hails from Brazil, but finds happiness in Sweden. Maisa Dabus and you can follow Maisa on Twitter @maydbs
